God Don't Like Ugly

Mary Monroe is my muse. We're both from Oakland, California, or at least I believe Mary lived there close to as long as I have. Mary is a bestselling author for God Don't Like Ugly. I read it before and I am reading it again, because Mary is one of the few authors that write characters I know and can relate to. Here's what you will find in God Don't Like Ugly, good people, bad people and a book one can truly enjoy. Mary has her pulse on culture, world events and the magnetic influences of Black life. I believe after reading Mary's books I learned how to tell stories. I learned how not to sugar-coat the sometimes challenging experiences of being Black in America. I read God Don't like Ugly once, I am reading it again. And, I will show more probably read it again at the right time, when I need to pull my self back down into life! show less

Reviewed by: Angela (Class of 2013)

People say you have to truly love yourself before you can love someone else, but maybe all you need is a little love given to you to realize what you have within yourself; your beauty, your intelligence, and your capabilities.

Mary Monroe is an author from Alabama. She also lived in Ohio and moved to Richmond, California in 1973. Mary Monroe published her first novel in 1985. She won the Best Southern Author Award for "Gonna Lay Down My Burdens" in 2004, and she also won the Oakland Pen Award for Best Fiction of the Year in 2001 for "God Don’t Like Ugly".

"God Don’t Like Ugly" is a novel about a lost girl, whose bad situations help her to find friends and God which helps her cope. Annette Goode was show more a girl who lived in poverty in the 1950’s with her mother and father when her dad left them for a white woman; this truly devastated her mother so they attempted to move away from their troubles in Florida to Ohio. In Ohio, her mother struggles to provide a better life for her. Her mom does many things for money until she finally finds a way to get them a nice house. When they get a house Annette’s mom allows a Christian veteran boarder (Mr. Boatwright) to live with them. Annette was an overweight dark-skinned girl living in a harsh period of racism with very low self-esteem. Annette meets a pretty rich girl who lives across the street named Rhoda who makes her feel better about herself and they soon become best friends. Mr. Boatwright is a highly respected man but he deserves no respect at all because he starts to molest Annette; she has no one to tell but her best friend Rhoda, and Rhoda finds a perfect way to put an end to it.

This story is eye-opening and heartwarming and is enlightening about relationships and karma. I give it a rating of five stars because it had a brilliant plot with good structure and vivid details. As I was reading the story I could relate to the characters’ emotions because with the descriptions, I felt as if I was there going through some of the experiences with them. I felt their pain, their confusion, and their joy. Mary Monroe crafted this novel perfectly. show less

This book, besides being poorly written, contains mention of/the act of rape throughout the book. I labeled it for teens because the story centers around a teenage girl. However, recommend with caution. From the synopsis, I took away the idea that a girl was going to get sexually abused and her friend helps her out of a jam. I wasn't expecting the entire book to be about that, though. It's a constant rape for years. The story was really tough to read and didn't resolve itself much because, oh look, there's a sequel (called God Still Don't Like Ugly). I think books with subject matters this extreme can be important and find a place within literature, but the writing style threw me off so much that I couldn't connect with any of the show more characters or situations. show less

God Don't Like Ugly is in no way your basic coming-of-age story. The story is dark, tragic, and heart-breaking. I absolutely fully loved this book and found it hard to put down. I will undoubtedly be reading this book again!

I liked this book. I listened to it (audiobook) and the reader was great she gave the book the personality and attitude it deserved which made this book a very easy "read"/listen :-)

Much respect to Mrs. Monroe..she is a very talented writer. You will not be disappointed if you read this book.

I lost count of how many times I decided to quit reading this but went back and continued. Not my cup of tea.